The noted bard William Shakespeare penned a line in his 17th century play "As You Like It" that goes: “Why then, can one desire too much of a good thing?”

It is a quote that has stood the test of time for 418 years, and it means the same thing now as it did back in A.D. 1600: Too much of a good thing can be bad for you.

Montana High School Association executive director Mark Beckman, and Bob Gardner, who holds the same position with the National Federation of State High School Associations, joined forces to email media outlets a press release dealing with "The inherent risk of sport specialization."

This is a subject that can stretch from the ball field to the classroom, Beckman said.

In sports, young athletes can be swayed to believe that “if I don’t work on my jump shot I won’t make the basketball team.” Or maybe even worse: “If I play baseball this summer, I won’t make the basketball team.”

This is sport specialization: the process of playing one sport all year long, as opposed to young athletes — grade school through high school — participating in more than one sport year-round.

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Garrison Rothwell, of C.M. Russell High School, was a standout in basketball and football for the Rustlers.(Photo: TRIBUNE PHOTO/RION SANDERS)

Sport specialization, as doctors, coaches, parents and even athletes are finding out, can do more harm than good.

The injuries that can be suffered by specialists can run the gamut. Dr. Paul Johnson, a sports medicine specialist with Benefis Health System, describes what can happen to overused muscles and limbs: “Stress fractures, tendonitis, “Little League elbow,” jumper’s knee … all from repetitive motion and undue stress to body parts, stress from training, and when not enough adequate rest after an injury has occurred.”

The press release issued by MHSA’s Beckman cites a study commissioned by the NFHS and conducted by researchers from the University of Wisconsin: “High school athletes who specialize in a single sport are 70 percent more likely to suffer an injury during their playing season than those who play multiple sports.”

The release also cites the opinion of the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons that “’overuse injuries’ — injuries caused when an athletic activity is repeated so often that affected parts of the body do not have enough time to heal — are responsible for nearly half of all sports injuries to middle school and high school students.”

That falls under the oft-used axiom: “No pain, no gain.”

“Playing through an injury can affect your throwing and running mechanics,” Johnson added. “And then compensating for the injury can affect other parts of your body.”

Beckman says the easiest and least expensive way for young athletes to avoid these debilitating and life-changing injuries is to cross-train, to play in more than one sport.

“When student-athletes cross-train, they work different muscle groups and joints which, in fact, results in better overall conditioning,” Beckman added. “They also develop a new set of athletic skills like hand-eye coordination, balance, endurance, explosion and agility that are transferable to their primary sport.”

Beckman also noted that 30 of the 32 first-round picks in the 2017 NFL draft were multi-sports athletes in high school. This year, it was 29 of the 32 picks.

Beckman also said kids who play more than one sport excel in the classroom, pointing toward a study on the grade point averages of multi-sport athletes.

“Student-athletes who participate in multiple sports actually have a higher GPA than those who don’t,” Beckman told the Tribune by phone. “Multi-sport athletes play for different coaches and learn different styles of playing, plus they tend to have different teammates.”

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Gary DeGooyer to retire after 21 years as athletic director of Great Falls Public Schools
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Gary DeGooyer, the outgoing athletics director for Great Falls Public Schools, did research on the same subject for his master’s degree.

“There’s some exceptions, but kids who are involved in more extracurricular activities generally have a higher GPA that those in one or less,” DeGooyer, who is retiring at the end of the year after 21 years with GFPS, said.

Gail Parambi is one of those exceptions. The sophomore tennis player at C.M. Russell High only plays the one sport, and admires all student-athletes. But to each, their own.

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C.M. Russell High tennis player Gail Parambi plays just one sport but said she admires those who make time to play more than a single sport.(Photo: TRIBUNE PHOTO/RION SANDERS)

“I think they put in a lot of work into their craft, whether it’s one sport and excelling in that the way a lot of these kids here do,” Parambi said during the Northern AA Divisional tournament last week, “or by diversifying their experience, and a lot of student-athletes at CMR and other schools do very well in that as well."

“A lot of athletes put a lot of effort into what they do, and it’s cool to see that.”
DeGooyer said. Great Falls High recently honored the students who lettered in three sports this year.

“I’d be willing to guess that every one of those kids were a B-plus or higher, and they all participate in three or more sports,” DeGooyer said.

“Busier kids generally have higher GPAs. I don’t think anyone will dispute that.”
said CMR tennis coach Anne Bulger, who said she has many multiple sport athletes on her squad. “We have several soccer players on our team. It just depends on the seasons.

“I have a lot of kids who might like to be in track and field, but they’d rather play tennis,” Bulger continued. “Tennis is great because it is a lifetime sport. You can play your whole life, and you don’t have to have a team. They play into their 70s and 80s, and that’s not true with a lot of the other team sports.”

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Josh Huestis, former Rustler great who now plays in the NBA worked trainer Dan Groux at the sports training facility in the Orthopedic Center of Montana.(Photo: RION SANDERS, GREAT FALLS TRIBUNE)

Dan Groux has been a certified strength and conditioning specialist with the Results Program at Benefis for 12 years. He says the athletes he trains are already healthy to begin with. Most notably, Groux has trained former CMR standout and pro basketball player Josh Huestis.

He said student-athletes who concentrate on one activity tend to “ask those muscles to keep doing the same thing over and over and over.

“We take kids and work on their running form, trying to help them reach the next level,” Groux said. “We engage in a lot of injury prevention, strength exercises and apply metrics (explosive movements).”